If you spent a lot of money on Cyber Monday, then you likely have a ton of shipments heading your way from all over the place. Tracking all of them is difficult in it's own right, but making sure you're around to receive the packages is even tougher. Here are a few ways to cut down on the shipping annoyances you run into during the holiday rush.

How to Easily Track All Your Shipments

If you're receiving just one or two packages, one of our favorite Google shortcuts is to paste in the tracking number into Google and you'll automatically be taken to the mail carrier's tracking page. However, that's not all that helpful if you're tracking a bunch of packages.

You have a lot of options for tracking multiple packages, but we like Slice because it integrates with your Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, iCloud or Yahoo account so you can track all your deliveries from your iPhone or Android on the go. You can also use it as a bookmark or in Yahoo itself. This is especially helpful when you've ordered a bunch of those Cyber Monday deals from different retailers and don't feel like logging into multiple places just to find your tracking number again. Plus, if you need to really keep a close eye on shipments, you can set up Slice to send you push notifications when a package is shipped or delivered.

Utilize Mail Carrier Specific Perks

One of the underutilized perks of receiving a package through UPS or FedEx is the ability to alter some of the details about your shipment. Through both My FedEx or MyUPS you get a little control over how your packages get to you.

Advertisement

Advertisement

For example, you can pre-sign for packages and even leave delivery instructions if you're comfortable with a package sitting on your porch for a while. You can also request that a package is held at the delivery center for pick-up through the webapps or over the phone. This is especially handy if you're getting a gift for someone in your house that you don't want them to see. Although it doesn't look like you can reroute packages through the web site, I've had luck making a phone call to UPS to get a package rerouted to a different address, but only because I'd received shipments there in the past. You can also set up delivery alerts so you know exactly when the package arrives on your doorstep.

You can't control what time the delivery driver shows up, but if nothing else you can at least insure that you'll get your packages when you need them and not be surprised by the dreaded sticky note on the door on Christmas Eve just because you went to the store for some egg nog.

Additionally, reader Jeff S. sent in an email pointing to the USPS's Street Addressing feature, which is useful if you have a P.O. Box. Once you sign up, your P.O. Box effectively becomes a physical address that can receive packages from the likes of UPS or FedEx. For instance, if your post office is 500 Main Street, your address would be 500 Main Street [Your P.O. Box Number]. The service is only available in a few locations (you can find your zip code here), but it's a simple way to make sure your deliveries are safe.

Ship Your Own Packages On Time

It's not all about receiving packages on your end. Just as often you'll be shipping things out. A number of retailers list December 22nd (through next day shipping) as the absolute last day to get a gift out for in time for Christmas, but if you're shipping out packages yourself it's good to research before you send, especially since Christmas falls on a Tuesday this year. Here's each of the major mail services "last days to ship" for their ground services (next day and two-day continue to work as usual):